1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to painters' utensils and hardware, and more particularly to a device which protects generally circular doorknobs and doorknobs with circular mounting bases and laterally extending handles from becoming painted, stained or varnished when such materials are being applied to adjacent door and room surfaces.
2. Description of Related Art
During the painting and decorative covering of the interior of a building with any of a broad range of spreadable coating materials such as paints, varnishes, lacquers, stain and the like, there is considerable risk of inadvertently getting such spreadable materials onto the hardware within a room. One particular area of concern is the doorknobs which are quite susceptible to paint droppings, splashes and inadvertent paint applicator strokes bumping there against. One typical means for preventing paint and the like from getting onto the door hardware would be simply to mask it off in its entirety which is a tedious and time consuming process both to apply and to remove after painting.
However, a number of prior art devices are intended to facilitate protecting the doorknobs in various fashions. An early doorknob paint shield is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,925,064 invented by Kahn which teaches two semi-cylindrical members pivotally connected together at a common end thereof and held in place around a cylindrical or circular base of a doorknob by magnetic strips attached to the distal edges of the semi-circular members.
Stark, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,486 teaches another paint shield formed of an arcuately configured length of material having a biased spiral wind which, when expanded and then allowed to biasingly contract around the base of the doorknob, remains in self-supporting position to protect the doorknob from becoming paint spattered.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,269, Kathe teaches hardware paint protectors for virtually all of the hardware within a room not intended to become painted. In FIG. 4 therein, a tapered cup arrangement is slidably engageable over the doorknob, and separately the tumbler lock, to effect protection of these hardware members attached to the door.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,058, Stark teaches another self-supporting paint shield for doorknobs having a continuous angular wall portion defining an opening for receiving the doorknob. The annular wall portion has a tapered rim of the open end defining a diameter which is different from that of the doorknob for enhanced gripability and limited interference with paint being applied directly up to the base of the doorknob.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,551, Randolph teaches a phosphorescent luminous doorknob cover which is primarily decorative in nature, while Schwartz, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,028 teaches a door hardware cover which is formed to become a sealable plastic bag around the doorknob held in place by adhesive strips.
Izzo in U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,663 teaches a doorknob shield having an elongated longitudinally extending handle attached to a truncated conical shaped skirt. The skirt is sized at an open end thereof to be positioned over the doorknob abutting against the door immediately adjacent to the doorknob itself. A doorknob cover in U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,122 invented by Williams teaches another form of cover for enclosing a doorknob during painting of the door having a spherical resilient knob cover assembly which is positionable over a similarly configured doorknob. An escutcheon cover assembly covers the similarly shaped escutcheon and shaft of the doorknob.
Farrell teaches a protecting shield in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,470 formed of two sheets of cardboard secured along their side edges so that they may be bowed outwardly from one another and held in this position by bottom panels which fold inwardly to maintain this three dimensional structure for engagement over a doorknob.
The present invention teaches a doorknob paint shield which is formed as a unit of molded thin wall flexible plastic material and is easily adapted to fit over and be secured onto a broad range of diameters of doorknobs. This omni-sized feature is facilitated by the flexibility of half cup-shaped members hingedly connected along a common longitudinal margin thereof which, when folded together may be held in abutting edge to edge fashion or overlapped for smaller doorknob diameters. An elastic member held in place onto outwardly extending posts or prongs of each of the half cup-shaped members provides the elastic biasing grip around the doorknob to facilitate holding the device in place tightly against the doorknob and against the door itself to protect the doorknob from becoming paint spotted while still allowing full paint coverage of the door immediately adjacent the doorknob itself.